El Paso May Receive Almost a Year’s Worth of Snow Overnight

By Brian K. Sullivan -
Jan 3, 2013

El Paso, Texas, may receive almost a
year’s worth of snow overnight from a pair of winter storms
crossing the region.

The west Texas city may get as much as six inches (15
centimeters) from the storms that have already left an inch on
the ground, said Greg Lundeen, a National Weather Service
meteorologist in Santa Teresa, New Mexico. The annual average
snowfall for El Paso is 6.6 inches.

“We don’t have too many times when we get this much snow
coming in,” Lundeen said by telephone. “We average about two
or three measurable snow days a year.”

Winter weather advisories and storm warnings stretch across
southern New Mexico into west Texas cities including Odessa,
Midland and Abilene. The heaviest amounts may fall near the
junction of Interstates 10 and 20, where as much as eight inches
are expected.

Midland and Odessa may receive from one to three inches,
according to the weather service. Temperatures in the cities may
reach into the low 20s Fahrenheit (minus 5 to minus 7 Celsius).

Lundeen said in an average year it takes about three storms
to drop the 30-year average of 6.6 inches. The city may get its
entire allotment before morning.

The current high temperature in El Paso is 32 degrees,
Lundeen said. The normal high is 56.

“We’re running pretty cold,” he said.

Temperature may fall to 23 or lower later today, Lundeen
said. In February 2011, cold weather knocked out 50 generation
units taking more than 7,000 megawatts of electricity offline,
according to the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas.